The present invention relates to a roller belt arrangement for a caterpillar track-type vehicle, especially a snowmobile, having one or more inextensible, rotating belts that extend parallel to one another and to which transversely extending driver or gripper means are secured via bolts, rivets, or the like that pass through the belts, whereby on that side of the belts remote from the gripper means the bolts, rivets, etc. act upon this inner side of the belts via contact elements, with the belts each comprising an inextensible core that is disposed between two protective cover layers that are made of rubber or the like and are secured thereto.
Such protective cover layers have the advantage that the gripper means and/or the contact elements do not act directly upon the core, which is comprised, for example, of woven material, but rather these parts rest upon the resiliently deformable cover layers, which thus serve as protection and at the same time also provide for a certain amount of resilience in the mounting of the gripper means. It is to be understood that upon securement of the gripper means, a deformation that conforms to the securing pressure must enter the cover layers. In so doing, parts of the layers that are subjected to pressure are displaced toward the side. However, a displacement also occurs for those portions of the core that are subjected to the pressure. Consequently, the body of the belt in the vicinity of the gripper means undergoes a bulging that can lead to shearing stresses within the belt body and can result in loosening and separation of the belt body.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to embody roller belt arrangements of the aforementioned general type in such a way that the unavoidable deformations of the belt body in the region of the gripper means cannot lead to disadvantageous effects, especially separations of the belt body.